Holt's wife buys horse linked to Zetas for $1M

San Antonio Spurs Chairman and CEO Peter Holt and his wife, Julianna (right), talks with actress Eva Longoria at the AT&T Center on Nov. 24, 2004.

Photo By KEVIN GEIL/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Julianna Holt shown in a photograph by Gray Hawn that hangs in the Holt office in San Antonio.

Photo By MORRIS GOEN

Julianna Holt relaxes on a fence line at her ranch Near Blanco on August 27, 2001.

Photo By Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press

A Dash of Sweet Heat pictured in a stall before selling at the Heritage Place fall mixed sale in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012, for $1 million.The horse was one of over 300 horses confiscated by the U.S. Government as alleged assets of a Mexican drug cartel's money laundering operation and being sold at the auction.

Photo By Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press

A Dash of Sweet Heat is led into the sales ring by an unnamed Heritage Place employee during the fall mixed sale in Oklahoma City on Nov. 1, 2012. The horse was one of over 300 horses confiscated by the U.S. Government as alleged assets of a Mexican drug cartel's money laundering operation and being sold at the auction. This horse sold for $1 million dollars.

Photo By Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press

A Dash of Sweet Heat is led from the sales ring after selling for one million dollars at the Heritage Place fall mixed sale in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012. The horse is one of over 300 horses confiscated by the U.S. Government as alleged assets of a Mexican drug cartel's money laundering operation and being sold at the auction. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (left) cheers as San Antonio Spurs' Manu Ginobili (20) is helped off the court after hitting a three point basket during the first half of game one of the NBA Western Conference Finals in San Antonio, Texas, Sunday, May 27, 2012. Pictured at bottom center is Julianna Holt, wife of Spurs owner Peter Holt. Seated next to Julianna Holt is Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and at far right, helping Ginobili up, is Peter Holt.

Photo By JERRY LARA/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

San Antonio Spurs Chairman and CEO Peter Holt and his wife, Julianna (right), with actress Eva Longoria at the ATT Center on Nov. 24, 2004

Photo By JERRY LARA/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

San Antonio Spurs Chairman and CEO Peter Holt and his wife, Julianna (right), with actress Eva Longoria at the ATT Center on Nov. 24, 2004.

Photo By WILLIAM LUTHER/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Spurs owner Peter Holt and wife Julianna applaude the Spurs as their game perseason game against the Knicks at the AT&T Center on Oct. 18, 2002.

More Information

An owner of the San Antonio Spurs has repurchased one of the most valuable horses seized by the U.S. government from the Zetas cartel in a record sale that cost her $350,000 more than she sold the horse for last year.

Records from a horse auction in Oklahoma City show Julianna Hawn Holt, who with husband Peter Holt owns the largest stake in the Spurs partnership, made the winning bid of $1 million for A Dash of Sweet Heat, a 2-year-old horse she previously owned and sold. She did not personally bid Thursday but had a representative do so, according to sale attendees.

Julianna Holt is involved in the quarter horse industry and runs a ranch in the Hill Country. She often has her horses bred at the famed 6666 Ranch in Guthrie, near Lubbock, according to news reports about the quarter horse industry and Julianna Holt.

The Holts were unavailable for comment.

A Dash of Sweet Heat is one of more than 400 horses seized in June by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service during an investigation into the money-laundering activities of the Zetas, who control smuggling corridors in Mexican states bordering most of Texas.

The feds allege the cartel's leader, fugitive Miguel Angel “El Cuarenta” (or “40”) Treviño, laundered drug money in the quarter horse industry by quietly using fronts and his older brother, José, 45, who lived in North Texas and Oklahoma before his arrest in June.

Some of their horses were long shots but made $2.5 million in important races between 2009 and 2012. Some also raced at Retama Park.

The three-day auction, which was reported in the San Antonio Express-News on Thursday, the day it began, includes 341 of the seized horses, including some bred from America's top racing bloodlines.

The auction does not include five of the most valuable horses because the parties the government seized them from have not yet agreed to their sale. The matter is being litigated in a civil forfeiture case in Austin. The $1 million paid for A Dash of Sweet Heat eclipses the previous record paid for a broodmare at a quarter horse public auction.

In January 2010, $875,000 was paid for Dashin Follies, one of the horses reportedly bought by the Zetas or its associates and seized by the government in June, according to a search warrant affidavit. Dashin Follies is one of the five valuable horses still in dispute in the forfeiture case, records show.

“The auctioneer said this was the second-highest sale of a quarter horse at a public auction,” said Special Agent Mike Lemoine, spokesman for the IRS Criminal Investigation unit in San Antonio.

“Of the horses we're selling now, we estimate this is probably the highest-valued horse.”A Dash of Sweet Heat was born in 2010. The filly was sired by Mr. Jess Perry and came from a top broodmare, Corona Chick, according to the auction catalog.

Just last year, Holt sold A Dash of Sweet Heat at public auction at Ruidoso Downs in Ruidoso, N.M., according to a Web blog posting on sallyharrison.com, “where breeders do their homework.”

The $650,000 price for A Dash Of Sweet Heat broke the Ruidoso Select Sale record for a filly, sallyharrison.com reported. It was purchased at that time by “A Dash of Sweet Heat Partnership,” the blog site reported.

The horses' parents, too, are important in breeding circles. Mr. Jess Perry is one of only four stallions in American Quarter Horse Association history to sire earners of more than $39 million, according to the Web site for 6666 Ranch, owner of Mr. Jess Perry.

Corona Chick is a multiple race champion, record breaker and winner of nearly $600,000, according to sallyharrison.com.

Corona Chick also was the AQHA Broodmare of the Year in 1997 and produced champions that include All American Futurity winner Corona Cash and stakes-winning Corona Cartel, the blog said. Corona Chick was already owned by Holt, the blog said.

“She'd get rid of me before she'd get rid of Corona Chick,” the blog quotes Peter Holt joking about his wife's devotion to the mare.